Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) narrowed first quarter losses but the results fell short of expectations. Separately, Reuters reported that chief executive Aubrey McClendon formed and lead a private hedge fund that traded commodities produced by Chesapeake.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks fell 6 points to 809.